FA Cup Third Round Result 22th January 2011

Crawley Town 2-1 Derby County
I can hardly believe it. Another one!
I knew about Glenn Wilson already but I had no idea that Scott Neilson was the grandson of Cliff Jones, which means he’s eligible to play for Wales! How exciting is that?
Oh yes, and non-league Crawley beat Championship side Derby…
It was a very exciting game which Crawley deserved to win. They dominated and fully deserved their lead, matching, if not surpassing, their more illustrious visitors. Derby should have taken the lead early on when they were awarded a penalty but Crawley goalkeeper Michael Kuipers wasn’t going to be beaten as easily as all that. Instead, it was Crawley who took the lead.
Although Derby did find an equaliser from somewhere, a replay would probably have been triumph enough – if just a little bit disappointing, given the way they’d played. But Crawley weren’t giving up as easily as all that and in stoppage time, they got a second goal. The winner was scored by Torres - not a sentence that’s been written very often this season.
Glenn and Scott both came close to scoring for Crawley.
Gareth Roberts and Robbie Savage were in Derby’s starting line-up but they were both substituted, not that long before Crawley scored again.
Crawley face fellow giant-killers Torquay United in the next round.

Welsh Player News 17th September 2010 (Premier League)

Aaron Ramsey says his leg is getting stronger and the experience will make him stronger as a person too. (It’s clichéd but probably true.)

Jason Brown has signed for Leeds United on a one-month loan.

Brian Flynn is rumoured to be going to watch Blackburn Rovers v Fulham tomorrow. With Blackburn’s only senior Welsh player, Jason Brown, on loan at Leeds United, he can only be watching the retired Simon Davies. Unless there’s some other Wales-eligble player I don’t know about yet. Either way, I’m excited.

Ryan Giggs is much too old for me… but I didn’t think that when he was 17 and I was 4!

Michael Owen could move to Aston Villa – but probably next summer, not in January. James Collins is just one player who would be delighted to see him.

Owen Hargreaves should be back at Manchester United in another fortnight but he might not be ready to play straight away.

Arsene Wenger and Stoke City’s Ryan Shawcross are at loggerheads again following fresh claims from Arsene that Stoke are a dirty side. But Ryan really have no idea why Arsene might have a problem with him? I don’t have a problem with Ryan but if Arsene Wenger does, I do understand why. Concern for your players is natural and forgiveness isn’t always easy.
I would say though that in many ways it’s a positive that Arsene is speaking up for other teams and not seeing his own team as the only victims.

Danny Collins is another player who could get a chance to play for Wales again – and this could well happen. Unlike the other players, he didn’t officially retire and he has been saying for a while that he’s interested in returning.

Cliff Jones remembers helping Tottenham Hotspur to win the Cup Winners’ Cup. It really was an amazing achievement for such a crap team (I support Arsenal, I’m supposed to say things like that), even with a Welshman in the side. It’s a very interesting article though.

Real Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan are all interested in Gareth Bale. I’m not sure it’s the best time him for him to move but there would be a certain advantage in his not playing for a team I’m supposed to hate…

Dave Edwards has signed a new three-year contract with Wolves. He hopes to repay Mick McCarthy’s faith in him by getting back into the first team.

David Jones thinks it’s time he scored another goal for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Well, you’re facing Tottenham Hotspur, David, so you have my full support.

Premier League Results 17th April Part 2

Manchester City 0-1 Manchester United
This game looked set to end exactly as I wanted to (I hadn’t then quite given up on Arsenal winning the League) but then Paul Scholes sneaked in with a goal.
Robbie Savage said this week that Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs were getting on a bit. I would have loved to agree (except about Ryan Giggs) but I didn’t then and I can’t now. It was Scholes who scored the goal but it could easily have been Ryan, while Gary Neville was a big part of the reason why Craig Bellamy didn’t score for City. It was an ineffective attack from Craig that indirectly led to United’s goal. Roberto Mancini isn’t very happy with him. Maybe he’ll sell him to Arsenal, that would be great
The rumour is that John Toshack has no plans to call up Ryan to play for Wales again. Everyone thinks he’s mad except Neville Southall who says Ryan has nothing to gain by returning to play for Wales. What about the honour if representing your country?

Stoke City 1-2 Bolton Wanderers
It hasn’t been a good weekend for home sides. Blackburn thought they’d got a point, Arsenal thought they’d won… and Stoke probably thought they’d got all three points too. Then Matthew Taylor scored twice in the last five minutes – including one from a rather dubious free kick - and Bolton ended up with the points instead.
Ryan Shawcross wasn’t fit enough to return from an ankle injury but Danny Collins had another great performance in Bolton’s defence and could have scored. Sam Ricketts started for Bolton but was taken off at half-time. Sam wasn’t at his best but he was playing in midfield. Not every defender can play there.

Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Chelsea
Tottenham re-opened the title race with a win over leaders Chelsea. It should have been a lot more than 2-1 to Tottenham.
I said after Gareth Bale’s midweek goal against Arsenal that he should make it up to me by scoring the winner against Chelsea too. Gareth must be reading my blogs because that’s exactly what he did. It was his first-ever goal with his right foot. It was a great solo run, followed by some clever trickery, before a firmly-struck shot ended up exactly where Gareth and I wanted it. If only Arsenal hadn’t fucked it up 24 hours later.
Cliff Jones thinks Gareth will be the first Welsh player to get 100 caps.